Global health is a recent term, barely more than a decade old, used to express the inter-connective experiences of globalization in relation to human health. Through the transforming and transformative operations of global health, Indonesia was made ready to confront H5N1 Avian influenza, an emerging disease that threatened both its domestic population and global health and security. The experience of the US Naval Medical Research Unit-2, the Indonesian Ministry of Health, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and the Indonesian Ornithologists’ Union are explored to illustrate how H5N1 influenza caused changes in the normative rationalities of all involved in preparedness planning in Indonesia. An examination of the interplay of sovereignty, surveillance, and optimization within the H5N1 intervention in Indonesia puts into relief the tension between attention to health disparities in Indonesia versus the desire to protect the international community from pandemic influenza.